A Word of Inspiration Week 3
by Wren Maxwell
Summary: First attempt at filling stories for prompts Mark and Distracted for Taylor/Wash and Sticky for Maddy/Mark. From terranovafanfiction at livejournal  1/30 Adding a fill for Jim&Taylor - Prank, Elisabeth&Wash - Run
1. Mark

They were on his desk. Again.

Wash could feel the cool surface of the glass through the back of her shirt and, as always, it was a sensational contrast to the warmth of Nathaniel's chest against hers. She was trying to stifle her moans as he rocked gently, then not so gently against her. It was the middle of the afternoon and she's just walked in to get his approval on some paperwork. Next thing she knew she being thoroughly groped (and then some) and desperately hoping no one else needed the commander for anything today.

He was busy working his way back up her throat and she was busy banging her head on the glass and biting her lip when she croaked out, "Mark!"

Taylor pulled back with a hazy grin, "I thought we were trying to be discrete?"

Wash popped him one on the back of his head without even looking and indicted where she was looking. "No. Mark."

Taylor's eyes focused up passed her flushed face, and sure enough, there was Reynolds, gaping like fish in his doorway.

"Something you needed Corporal?" Taylor asked calmly, planting his forearms in relaxed way on either side of Wash's red face. Her hands came up to cover said face when Mark's eyes started doing a panicked dance between her and her CO. This was all his fault and she would have no part in it just now.

"Uuuhhh… I um... Nothing that requires immediate attention sir." Reynolds saluted, and fled from the room like there was a Nyko on his tail.

"Hm. Next time I'll remember to lock the door," Taylor mused.

Wash stared up at him in horror. "Next time? Poor kid is never gonna be able to look me in the face again and you are thinking of a next time?"

Taylor smirked down at her. "If Reynolds knows what's good for him all he will remember is walking in on an awkward sparing session."

"Oh really? And I was moaning in what then. Exertion? Pain?" she muttered as Taylor returned to his former ministrations.

"Agony, Lieutenant," he rolled his hips against hers, making her let out another of the incriminating sounds. "Beautiful agony."


	2. Distracted

It was late and Wash was sitting at her desk staring into space. She was supposed to be looking over reports from the latest OTG mission. Instead she was twirling her ponytail around her fingers (a girly gesture she would never admit to indulging). She enjoyed the gentle tug of the individual strands against her scalp and the memories that the relaxing sensation evoked.

The first memory is of Somalia, shortly after she joined Nathaniel Taylor's elite unit. A week was all it took for her to consider hacking all her hair off. For certain she would fit in better with the men and it would put an end to her constant frustration with the dark strands. They were an endless damp tangle she was fighting a losing battle with. No sooner would she get five minutes to wash and comb it out than it would be caked with jungle mud again. She tried putting it in the tightest most secure knot possible, but a few hours into any mission and the two foot tail would be swinging behind her.

She was currently laying in the underbrush about two meters from her CO waiting for an enemy patrol to move on. She could feel some sort of creepy crawly moving against her skin where the hem of her shirt was riding up and she knew that when she rolled into this dank hidey-hole that her hair had landed across the pool of jungle muck behind her. She refused to think of it, instead focusing her attention on the feet she hoped would be passing on quickly. She was so intent on them that the sharp yank to her hair almost caused her to start. Almost. She carefully turned her head with a scowl and saw that Taylor was trying to give her the signal that they were about to move out.

A few days later when the majority of them were safely back at their base she felt another, somewhat gentler, yank at her hair. She spun around to find her CO contemplating the bits of hair grasped between his fingers.

"Glad to know its good for something," he chuckled.

Alicia gave a fleeting smile to his retreating form and decided that she wasn't going to cut her hair.

Over the years it became a familiar gesture between friends. When he was ruminating by the fire she might walk up and nudge his leg with her boot. When she was morosely staring into the tree line he would walk up and tug on her hair. It was always brief, just enough to lift the heavy thoughts from her mind, and always private, something the two of them shared.

After his wife died things changed. At first he was withdrawn, refraining from human contact for the most part. Eventually the camaraderie returned, but over the years she noticed it had a different feel to it. Occasionally his fingertips would linger on her hair a bit longer, other times she felt the absence of his touch when he would reach out to her and pause, pulling away. She secretly hoped she knew what that meant, but it wasn't until the day she never thought she'd have that she got her confirmation.

There was a gentle pull dragging her slowly towards consciousness. Her head was throbbing and the thought of opening her eyes sounded like a really bad idea, but the tugging was insistent. As she swam back to reality she was able to zone in on the sensation. It was coming from the left side of her head, a small section of her scalp was tingling in a pleasant sort of way, a vast contrast to the throbbing coming from everywhere else. If she concentrated on that she was able to fight past the rest of the pain and crack her eyes open. Thankfully the lights were low and the face looking down at her quickly swam into focus.

"Welcome back to the land of the living Wash," Taylor said softly. His eyes were the beautiful, clear blue she remembered, but they had a blurry quality to them. She blinked to clear her eyes, wanting to make sure he was real before she replied, and realized that it wasn't her eyesight.

"Its good to be back sir," was her hoarse response. She tried to smile but it came out as more of a wince. That's when she noticed what Taylor was doing at her bedside. He was running a section of her hair through his fingers. As she watched she realized he had a pattern going in the way he ran the strands through his fingers, thus the insistent tugging on her scalp.

He smiled sheepishly when he realized he was caught. "Sorry, that probably hurts," he said, leaning back into his seat.

"No, its… nice," she whispered and watched his eyes soften.

The sound of footfalls broke her out of her memories.

"Wash?" the object of her thoughts called from the doorway. "Its getting pretty late for paperwork," he said, leaning in the doorway.

"Yes, sir," she eyes the piece of hair twisted between her fingertips before quickly flicking it over her shoulder. "Just got a bit distracted."

"Mmmm," was his reply as came to lean over her desk.

Wash's eyes fell closed as he reached behind her head and slowly dragged the band from her hair. A shiver ran down her spine as she felt her hair release to fall around her face. When she opened them back up she was met with Nathanial's twinkling stare. "Why don't you come home and let _me distract you for the night."_


	3. Sticky

Maddy could feel the sun, warm on her skin, and released a sigh of contentment as she woke. She smiled when she saw Mark's face, sleeping peacefully, a scant three inches in front for hers. She basked in her morning after glow for a few moments for realization hit. It was morning. And they were still outside the gates! Her parents were gonna freak!

She reached out to wake Mark, noticing a purple smudge on his nose for the first time since waking. Next she noticed the shiny new addition to her left hand.

Holy crap! Did she get engaged last night?

…Oh yea, that's right. She did. She smiled as she remembered that was why Mark brought her out here in the first place. To commemorate their first date spent OTG. This time things had gone a lot more smoothly due to some apparent prior planning and a nice bottle of wine. And the evening had ended a lot more pleasantly than a night spent in a tree, she recalled with a blush.

She looked back at Mark to find him watching her with a satisfied smile. She tried to give him a dirty look but it wouldn't take. "Come on, get up, we gotta get back! Oh, and you have to tell my dad…" she groaned.

"Or we could spend the rest of the day right here…" he said hopefully. She gave him a 'look' but he only shrugged. "It seemed wiser to ask you mother's permission."

Maddy rolled her eyes and went to get up. That's when she noticed she was half stuck to the ground. She made a disgusted noise and peeled herself away from the earth, leaf litter clinging stubbornly to her skin with the same purple goo she had noticed on Mark's face. "What _is this?" she cried, leaping to her feet and trying unsuccessfully to wipe the stuff from her skin. _

_Mark really did try, but he couldn't keep from laughing as he watched his beautiful, intelligent, and naked fiancee try to look over her shoulder to inspect the mess on her backside._

"_Mark! Why are you laughing? I'm all… sticky!" she whined, finally giving up on wiping the goop off and standing there with her hands on her hips, glaring at him._

"_I noticed," he said with a chuckle. "Looks like we picked the wrong place to, um… celebrate, last night."_

_Maddy's brow furrowed as she took a closer look at the mess of crushed plant life they had been sleeping on. "That's the sap Malcolm uses in his insect traps. It comes from crushing the stems of these plants."_

"_And we seem to have crushed quite a few…" Mark threw her a sly grin and she blushed again. Last night had been a bit… exuberant._

"_So, I know what'll take this off if I can find the trees around here," he said, taking stock. He had purple all down the side he was sleeping on as well as his feet, knees, forearms and hands. Maddy was similarly coated down the side she had slept on, but took the brunt of the goo on her back, shoulders and in her hair. Yea, definitely no way to go back with that kind of evidence all over them. Mr. Shannon would kill him on the spot._

_Maddy shooed him off into the trees and then followed the trail of clothes back to their picnic blanket. As she was gathering the last bits up, trying not to get everything else sticky, she heard a hoot of success. Eager to get cleaned up she followed Mark's excited shouts to a clearing near a tiny stream. "What's so exciting?" she called, looking for Mark as she carefully dropping their things to the ground. _

_He came out of the trees carrying an armload of fruit. "I hit the jackpot! There's an entire grove of trees!" _

_He tossed her one of the large fruits. It was similar to an orange, or grapefruit, she knew. These ones tasted horrible, but the thick skin, segmented interior and high citric acid content made it likely they were some distant predecessor. She weighed it in her hands a moment before giving up and looking to him for advice. "Alright. What do I do with it?"_

_Mark gave her his crooked grin before peeling off a section of the fruit's skin and crushing it in his hand. He then proceeded to wipe as much of the fruit oil on Maddy as he could. She couldn't help but smile and roll her eyes as she realized that this situation had a lot more in common with their first date than either of them had planned. Mark obviously noticed the same thing from the grin on his face as he worked._

_It took the better part of the morning, and a lot of scrubbing and rinsing, before the pair started to come clean. Fortunately, the inside of the fruit skin had an excellent texture for removing the purple sap, and the fruit oil itself was and amazing solvent. Unfortunately, neither did anything for the purple stain. _

_Maddy was furiously scrubbing at Mark's palms when he finally closed his fingers around hers. "I think its time to give up." _

_They had already gotten dressed when she decided one final attempt was in order. She threw her head back with an angry exhale. "Caught purple handed. How am I supposed to explain this?" she threw the peel down in disgust._

"_We were picking berries?" _

_Maddy gave him a hopeless look in reply, to which he pulled her into a hug. "You are the smartest person I know. You," he kissed her forehead, "will think," he kissed her nose, "of something," he grinned confidently and kissed her lips._

_Maddy softened and smiled back, hoping he was right. But as they crossed the gates to Terra Nova she still hadn't thought of anything better than 'berry picking.' She really hoped her mother had the presence of mind to hide her dad's gun._


	4. This Means War

Taylor and Jim worked well together. They'd figured this out shortly after meeting, butting heads and saving the colony together. It wasn't until April Fool's Day rolled around though that they realized how much potential they were wasting. With Jim's street smarts and Taylor's tactical brilliance, they could be unstoppable!

The last two years had been just so. Pranks abounded from every corner of the colony the first year, and the second, everyone couldn't wait to see what the pair would do next while still hoping not to be a target themselves. Last year Jim had to sleep on the couch for a week after AF Day, but it had been worth it to see Elisabeth's face when the sirens went off and he mournfully told her that Malcolm had accidentally blown up her lab. The Commander's prank had gone over about as well, earning him a black eye in the exact size and shape of Wash's fist.

But this year? This year was going to top them all. They were amazed with their own brilliance! No one was going to see this coming.

It was early morning on April 1st. Jim was about to set the first steps of the plan in motion by telling Elisabeth emphatically to stay out of harm's way today, knowing she would do the opposite. Oh, he was a tricky one. He was in the middle of his explanation when a red-faced and teary eyed Maddy threw herself into his wife's arms. When Elisabeth asked what was wrong she got no reply other than the presentation of a small plastic stick.

Jim was familiar with those little sticks. Elisabeth had gone through six of them when she suspected she was pregnant with Zoe (just to be sure.)

He could feel the blood rushing through his head, the 'wooshwooshwoosh' that drowned out the sounds of his wife telling him not to be hasty. Not be hasty? There was nothing hasty about him finding Reynolds and having a little chat. It was a perfectly normal response he thought as he fumbled for his gun. He grabbed the incriminating little stick and his holster as he left the house, women trailing behind and pleading with him to be reasonable.

He was making good time to the barracks when he rounded a corner and smashed into a dazed looking Taylor. They both dropped what they were holding as they reached out to steady each other. When they bent down to retrieve their fallen belongings they both had to stop and take stock of the identical plastic sticks on the ground. It took a moment to sink in before their eyes met and then immediately sought out the women in their lives.

Across the roadway they stood, all trying to maintain a straight face around their quivering lips. As Jim and Taylor stood Elisabeth composed herself enough to smile sweetly at Jim and call out. "April Fool's Day darling!" A now dry-eyed Maddy had to clap a hand over her mouth to keep from busting out laughing.

Taylor pinned Wash with a hurt look, but she only shrugged, "Paybacks a bitch… sir," and added a smirk at the end.

The men took a minute to digest this, then came to a silent agreement and started slowly stalking towards the women.

Elisabeth eyed them warily before glancing at Wash. "Run?" she whispered.

"Definitely."

The three women made a break for it.


End file.
